Covering the latest data on California’s economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions, Tony Barboza of the Los Angeles Times spoke with Near Zero’s Danny Cullenward.

Reductions in 2017 slowed down over the year before — with greenhouse gas emissions falling 1.2% in 2017 compared to 2.8% in 2016. That won’t be enough for the state to reach its more ambitious goal to slash greenhouse gas emissions an additional 40% by 2030.

“The pace has got to pick up significantly in the coming years if we’re going to get to meet the 2030 goal,” said Danny Cullenward, policy director at climate change think tank Near Zero and a researcher at Stanford Law School. “It has to be about 2-1/2 times what we saw in this year’s data.”

It’s a similar dynamic to last year, when regulators announced the state had hit its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels four years early.

“Once again, for another year running, nearly everything that’s positive in the headline number is from the electricity sector,” Cullenward said. “No other sector is making major contributions, and a couple are headed in the opposite direction.”